Michael Eisner, the big cheese at Disney was going to visit the Florida Feature Animation studio in a weeks time. People were scrambling to get the place cleaned up.
For the interns the final project was about to begin. This project would involve animating a scene from start to finish. We were told to animate Baloo from The Jungle Book. Along with that, we were to continue doing production work on the Lion King. I was looking forward to more production work.
This was the first scene that I worked on for The Lion King. It was a scene where the lionesses were cleaning their cubs. My lioness was lounging in the background not moving very much. On the first day of production I finished 6 drawings and they all were approved. I was responsible for 1/2 second of screen time.
The drawing of Simba leaping was unrelated to the scene I was working on. These are not the production drawings but just quick pen sketches. The production drawings were much more refined with pencil on paper. The next day I would work on another scene. I was now a cog in the machine of production.
I did a simple layout rough.Somehow my heart wasn’t into a scene devoid of people.I considered doing a second layout over the weekend while the studio was quiet.
Production was about to begin for us on the Lion King as clean up inbetweeners. My mentor sat down with me and gave me plenty f tips to help me understand how to accomplish inbetweening in production. I was excited to start but didn’t yet know which scene I would be working on. I was hoe sick but getting to work on actual production drawings lifted my spirits. We were about to start making magic in this parking lot trailer.
Disney animator Mark Henn is one of the best animators in the world. At the time I was an intern, he was animating young Simba for the Lion King. He animated Jasmin in Aladdin and I remember him saying he used one of his sisters signature laser beam looks for one of the scenes.
Anyway Mark was also an avid Civil War re-enactor and he came into the studio in his Union uniform to pose for one of the late night painting sessions. Mark was just recently made a Disney Legend.
In the morning Imagineering gave a presentation about their plans for a new theme park which will recreate a jungle safari. Tomorrow land in Walt Disney World was getting a complete face lift as well. One attraction int the works was called Alien Encounter and it involved a transporter experiment that goes horribly wrong. a 10 foot alien is unleashed and scurries among the audience. The alien was to be part scorpion and part spider. Each audience member at some point would feel the alien breath n their neck. I do believe that after we finished Lilo and stitch many years later it would be Stitch who would cause havoc in the attraction.
I update the laurels and re-post the poster each time COVID Dystopia is accepted into a new film festival.
I booked plane tickets and the hotel in Reno. The full cost of the hotel will be reimbursed by the festival but the airfare is on me. The hotel room has a king size bed which is such a waste. I couldn’t find a smaller room in the Silver Legacy casino hotel which is where all the film makers will be staying.
Booking decent round trip flights is a challenge I haven’t yet mastered. Only after the tickets were booked did I discover that I have a 3 hour layover in Minneapolis. Well if I go out or sketch in the airport that will take carer of two hours. I have a similar 3 hour layover in Salt Lake City on the way back but that one goes until 1am. I might be less enthusiastic about sketching Salt Lake City that late at night but we will see. Hopefully I have learned from my mistakes. Actually the layovers are intentional. Had I paid several hundred more dollars for the tickets I could have flown much faster. In Iowa I am driving 6 hours to avoid a similar layover. I would rather watch the road flow by than sit inside an airport. No matter how challenging, this is all an adventure and I need to embrace that.
COVID Dystopia is an official selection at the Cordillera International Film Festival, taking place in beautiful Reno-Tahoe, Nevada from Thursday, September 26 to Monday, September 30, 2024. COVID Dystopia will be screening in Short Films Program #6 – Music Video Party on Friday, September 27th after 5pm (Specific Time TBD) at the Aces Ballpark. The ball park has a seating capacity of 6,980. That is far more seats than in any movie theater. Since it is a Music video party I am hoping they make it a dance party and let people dance on the field. This will be my first time seeing the film on a jumbo-tron. I also like that the audience will be outside rather than in an enclosed space.
I have run into a film festival scheduling problem for the first time. The Charlotte Film Festival is running the same week. I don’t know exactly what day and time my film is scheduled to be shown in Charlotte so I am not sure if I can get there from Reno in time. If the film is screened on the exact same day I could not go.
The Cordillera Film Festival features state of the art venues, cash and in-kind production prizes, a popular PitchFest! competition, lodging for all Official Selections, a Filmmakers Lounge which serves 3 complimentary buffet-style meals daily, snacks and an open wine & beer bar, an iconic Grand Jury, industry networking events, red carpet premieres, awards ceremony, celebrity panels and parties every night. To say all that sounds exciting is an understatement.
Since I know my films Cordillera screening time slot I will probably book a flight today allowing for a day to settle in, the screening day, and then a day to fly out. The after parties in Reno looked amazing. I am already impressed with how organized this festival is.
The Charlotte Film Festival will possibly be screening the film with surround sound. My sound technician is in Georgia, so I will see if he is interested in going to represent the film. He hasn’t seen the film with the surround sound in a theater yet. He is considering a redesign of the whole soundtrack so this might inspire him.
Interns were often offered the chance to sketch from models. I took every opportunity to step away from the animation table and observe from life. On this day we had a flamenco dancer posing. I did a whole series of painting on the cardboard that was used to separate scenes.
Once a week there were also painting opportunities. An now looking at the sketch I realize that this was a painting session. I didn’t have my oil paints, they were back in NYC, but I made sure to sketch. It must have been easy to get models since there were so many cast members in the theme parks who would jump at the opportunity.
The animation Halloween party was around the corner. I lamented not having supplies to build a decent costume. Animators tend to blow it out of the park when it comes to Halloween costumes.
This folded postcard was ripped open so fast that a large chunk of the sketch was ripped off in the process. I crudely repaired it with scotch tape which will yellow with time.
This is a sketch of Japan in Epcot. Animators could go in the parks at any time, so I often went to sketch.
The mid term review went well. I was treated like a seasoned professional. I needed to work on my cleanup and inbetweening skills. They loved my figure drawings. My animation was coming along as expected but Frank Gladstone was sure I would fall in love with the layout department. Only time would tell.
This is Michael Mattesi animating a buffalo walking. Mike went on to work on the Lion King and then as a storyboard artist for a movie called Duplex, which I haven’t seen yet.
He wrote a book called Force: Dynamic Life Drawing which is now in its tenth edition worldwide.
An animator pulled me aside in sketch class and told me how much he liked my drawings. That was reassuring, but I need to convert those skills into a better understanding of animation. We had a full day of critiques and lectures followed by an acting class. A story boarding assignment followed and I was flummoxed in searching for an idea. At this point I was just home sick for NYC and I should have channeled that into a story idea. Instead I started building a story around a carousel horse.
At Epcot I sketched the stationary bikes. I didn’t actually peddle a bike myself, I was more interested in the people working so hard to go nowhere.
In the animation studio, I finished my quadruped walk. I had the hind legs stop and the torso stretched until the back legs and hips snapped forward to knock the Centaur over. It was a lazy cheat, but I got some laughs. Then we started on a layout assignment. Layouts are the drawings used to paint the backgrounds. I though I might like this since I am always sketching people in interesting locations. Something about sketching a location without hint of humanity threw me off. Drawing people is what attracts me to start sketching most scenes. The idea of sketching empty rooms just didn’t appeal to me.
I just didn’t know exactly where I should fit in. I was offered a position as an effects artist and I turned it down. Maybe that was my calling and I just didn’t see it. I stuck with character animation.